Moonlighting
by Prower Power
Summary: Shadow suspects Tails is engaging in some questionable midnight games. What does Shadow want out of the deal? And what is Tails real motive for the dangerous world he finds himself in? Find out inside!


**Chapter 1: Moonlighting**

"I saw you out there last night, ya know!" Shadow hisses in an elevated whisper.

"You must have me mixed up with somebody else." I say offhandedly without glancing up from the page.

"Don't play smart with me Tails!" He snaps back as he reaches over the counter and shoves the book on aerodynamic wake properties I was thoroughly engrossed in.

The bulbous book skids to a cattycornered stop against the wall leading to one of the workshops in the back.

"Funny, cuz I'm usually pretty good at playin' smart." I quip back at Shadow as I look him squarely in the eyes. "But honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Can it Fox! I saw you skidding around a corner on the west side of town around midnight." Shadow glares at me while pressing both palms against the counter.

"What kind of blades were those anyway? You had to be a quarter mile ahead of that punk you were racing."

I keep a stony facial expression as he talks.

"And knowing you, you probably rigged those blades up with something special, right?"

"I freely admit that I like to rollerblade Shadow, but I'm the hands-on manager of a facility that repairs everything from small planes to aero cars and everything in between from 7 am until 6 pm Monday through Saturday. I don't have time to moonlight as a street racer."

Shadow scoffs loudly as he steps back, crossing his arms.

"Besides, what we're you doing out there at that time of night anyway?" I ask in turn. "You into those races?"

"Maybe."

"Wow. Maybe? Since when did you become such a pansy?"

"Don't screw with me Tails!"

"Why does this matter so much to you anyway?"

"Let's just say that I have a vested interest in the outcome of some of those races, and I wouldn't mind having a little inside information about one of the participants."

"I am not helping you cheat! That's against the rules! Against the law even! It goes against every moral fiber of my bei--."

"And I'm sure you're in it just to get a good workout?" Shadow sarcastically quips.

"If you think I'm such a talented blader, then why don't you just bet on me to win?" I avoid answering him directly.

"Have you seen what they do to the losers?" Shadow asks, a dash of rage still peppered throughout his speech. "They get beaten to a pulp!"

"I….."

"Why are you doing this, Tails?! Street racing isn't your type of thing! What if you lose, huh? How are you going to protect yourself?"

I don't answer him.

"More importantly, why the hell are you doing this in the first place?"  
I look away, feeling my eyes lose their steely resolve.

"It can't be money. You're practically rolling in dough running this kind of shop in a city as big as Station Square."

"It's not about money Shadow." I tell him firmly as I reluctantly pull open a large bottom drawer on the side of my light oak colored desk.

I extract a manila envelope and unwind the string keeping it sealed. I shake the envelope gently as a few newspaper articles and some enlarged photos of other press clippings slide out.

"What are these?" Shadow asks while sifting through them.

"Just a few of the stories that have made the news about the police trying to shut down these racing leagues."

"And what does that have to do with why you're doing this? Even if you got arrested, I think it'd just be a misdemeanor."

"Look at these." I tell him humbly as I point at one of the articles.

"It's a picture…"  
"Read it!" I bark at him.

"What? It's just got a caption that reads: Pictured above is one of our undercover reporter's shots of one of the racers in action on I-25, just outside of town."

"Look at the picture Shdaow!"

He sighs sarcastically as he scans the image again before noticing a white and black furred fox with two tails zooming down the highway.

"Looks like you're not the only two-tailed fox out there." Shadow smirks.

"Are you trying to find another member of your long lost clan of mutated, multiple tailed foxes so you can procreate and prolong the existence of your species?" He continues ruefully.

"Very funny Shadow, but not quite. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but she kind of looks like my sister." I admit to him.

"You have a sister?" Shadow sounds genuinely surprised.

"After our plane crashed outside of Reykiav, that town near the Ice Cap area, I managed to run away before investigators arrived. It happened when we were ten, so I remember a pretty good bit about it."

"And you never told Sonic?"

"I don't tell him a lot of things."

Shadow seemed taken aback by that.

"What? Don't give me that look? It's not like we're attached at the hip, as you can plainly see." I gesture to my waist briefly.

"What plane crash? Something you built?"

"As if…." I scoff back at him. "We were on a trip with our parents."

"They….didn't make it." I admit shakily as I try to shake off the emotions I'm feeling and retrieve my book.

I focus on blocking out the other distractions so I can focus on my reading.

A few quiet seconds pass as I think I've successfully begun giving Shadow the silent treatment.

"Well, where is she now?!" Shadow demands loudly.

"I thought she had died too. I remember the crash." I tell him as I lower my head slightly, trying to shield myself from having to think about Shadow's ever present glance. "It was one of those passenger planes that seat quite a few people. The pilot did the best he could to slow the plane down and at least get the it parallel to the ground, but the impact was still intense. There was a big explosion as glass and metal flew everywhere."

I've replayed these images in my mind so many times that I've become almost numb to them now.

"I remember rolling to a stop in a field. Thankfully, it was in late May, so it wasn't that cold. I tried to get up, but I couldn't stand. I remember laying there crying in pain and fear until some people came to help. I remember waking up at the hospital with a cast on my right leg and some gauze wrapped around both of my forearms and forehead."

"Why didn't you try to find her th--?"

"You don't think I didn't?!" I cut him off angrily, with warm tears starting to blur my vision.

"They sent victims to different hospitals all around. A nurse called around for me, but none of the hospitals in the area received any patients matching Yuki's description."

"She had white fur, with one solid black ear and her right eye has an asymmetrical black patch of fur around it. Both of her tails are a brilliant white with black paintbrush colored tips."

Her soft blue eyes seem so real when I close mine and focus on them for even just a second.

"And you think by moving up the ranks of the Blade City rollerblading circuit that you'll get a chance to meet her or at least see if this fox is the real thing?" Shadow says as he tosses the pictures across to my side of the desk.

"You got a problem with it?" I tell him angrily as I try to shake away more tears from forming.

"How about I make a little proposition for you Tailsy?" Shadow says as he lowers his voice.

"If you build me a pair of blades that will help me win a race I've got tomorrow night, I just might be able to help you out."

"I thought you said you didn't race." I say, still snarling slightly from Shadow's unbridled indifference toward me.

"I believe I said that maybe I did and maybe I didn't."

"What do you know about Yuki?" I tell him as I shove my chair back with my tails as I stand up.

"More than you do." He says quizzically as he turns toward the front door. "Give me a ring if you wanna play."

He flings a card toward me that hits me square in the forehead, just beneath the little tufts of fur between my eyes.

"Is this your cell?" I ask him, trying to keep him from leaving so I can hopefully extract some more information from him.

"Please……who uses land line telephones anymore?" Shadow laughs forcefully as he pushes open the glass door to the main office.

He casually slips on a pair of sleek black shades with a bright red outline around the edges.

*

I toss and turn spastically underneath the covers. The deep blue and black comforter on my queen size bed seems so confining.

I can't get Yuki and Shadow out of my head.

I roll onto my side and glance at the searing red letters of the alarm clock on my nightstand.

2:48 a.m.

I remember the air wars Yuki and I would have when we were little.

*

"You'll never win, Tails the Terrible Two Tailed Fox!" Her soft, elevated voice would yell before pushing off the ground and twirling her tails together to zoom toward me.

I could only smile as I charged back at her.

Our fingers intertwined as we tried to push forward to gain control over each other.

"I will beat you this time Yuki!" I try to stifle a laugh as we come crashing to the ground in a heap of tangerine and snow colored fur.

I pushed and tried to even tackle her to the ground, but she was often too quick for me.

This time wasn't any different.

"Whaa…whoa!" I feel her duck right and then zag left as she quickly circles behind me and slams me to the ground.

She smothers me, holding me firmly against the ground with both of her hands locked around my arms like living shackles.

"Give up Tails!" She says, smiling sweetly. "You know you can't win!"

I sigh heavily.

"I give up!" I can't hide a grin any longer as she jumps up and gives herself a little victory dance.

She holds her clenched hands out to each side of her head as she dances circles around me.

*

All these memories are too much for me to handle anymore. I sleepily stumble over to my computer desk and grab my cell phone.

I mindlessly punch in a code on the touch screen and scramble around to find where I put that piece of paper.

After a few minutes of frantic searching, I realize I left it in the main office. I gingerly step through the vacated front part of the building and see the card Shadow tossed precariously perched on the edge of the desk above a wire mesh trash can.

I punch the numbers in the keypad quickly.

"I guess we have a deal then?" Shadow answers.

"Just stop by today after we close. I'll have them ready by then."

"That's what I wanted to hear." Shadow says before disconnecting.

I don't feel good about what I'm going to do, but I do feel like I'm getting a little closer to finding out if that was Yuki, or someone else.

I trudge back toward my bedroom and take a little solace in the fact that I'm going to be able to go back to sleep. I hungrily grasp the covers and snuggle deeper into my super soft mattress as all coherent thoughts I'm having fade away.

Coming Up: Is the mysterious two-tailed fox in the reporter's picture really Tails' long lost sister? Does Shadow want more out of this deal than he's letting on? Find out next time! Thanks for reading! I really appreciate it!


End file.
